[Guest post by DRJ]
U.S. officials raided a one-acre marijuana farm in Utah’s Dixie National Forest reportedly operated by Mexican drug cartel(s). The farm was irrigated by tapping into a nearby water pipe. One Mexican national was arrested.
— DRJ
Pronounced "Patter-EE-koh"
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that shows the sort of moxie Americans used to have
happyfeet (19c1da) — 7/19/2010 @ 11:05 pmThat is really gonna get the Dems to pass an amnesty bill.
Arizona Bob (e8af2b) — 7/19/2010 @ 11:22 pmPeople who buy illegal drugs support the murder of thousands of people every year, and they don’t care. If they want support for legalization they need to stop using the drugs for 5 years and drive the cartels out of business. Then everyone will see what caring, concerned citizens the drug users are and will vote to legalize the drugs.
It could happen.
tyree (63c76f) — 7/19/2010 @ 11:58 pmReminds me a bit of the MJ plot in Rock Creek Park that was discovered by a turtle with a camera strapped to it’s back.
Tyree – I’d be willing to go for legalization if you could make that whole 5 year moratorium thing happen. Won’t, but that would be lovely.
Vivian Louise (643333) — 7/20/2010 @ 4:55 amwait, there is a forest known as the dixie national forest… in utah?
i wasn’t aware that utah was part of the confederacy.
Aaron Worthing (A.W.) (e7d72e) — 7/20/2010 @ 5:55 amSouthern Utah is known as Dixie because Brigham Young sent a mission from SLC to the St. George area to grow cotton. Most of the members of the mission were originally from the Confederate states.
Zoltan (f80707) — 7/20/2010 @ 6:12 amI wonder if the Mexican national will be deported…I’m even somewhat shocked that the criminals were labeled Mexican..
jkstewart2 (eeb80b) — 7/20/2010 @ 6:50 amThose who support the INSANE War on Some Drugs are the real supporters of murder and make it possible for the cartels to exist and thrive.
“Adults are sole proprietors of their own bodies. Hence, unless they directly harm a non-consenting other, they have the absolute right to eat, drink, smoke, or inject anything they desire. Anything. No matter how harmful it is to themselves.” –Bill St. Clair
Horatio (55069c) — 7/20/2010 @ 7:17 amI’m waiting for this administration’s MO response of Sgt. Schulz: “I know NOTHING!”
Dmac (d61c0d) — 7/20/2010 @ 7:26 amIf frogs could be made to grow fur,
ropelight (481e69) — 7/20/2010 @ 7:40 amThe world would be safe for chinchillas.
Another administration blow against the entrepreneurial class in America. Wonder if the conundrum of arresting a “Mexican national” on drug charges has hit the DOJ yet. Maybe someone will leave an interrogation room door open and unguarded…or the charge will be reduced to landscaping without a permit.
in_awe (44fed5) — 7/20/2010 @ 7:49 am“People who
buy illegal drugssupport drug prohibition support the murder of thousands of people every year, and they don’t care.”FIFY
CTD (7054d2) — 7/20/2010 @ 8:11 amSo being against the drug trade is to support the cartels?
Makes as much sense as the idiots trying to claim Palin supports back alley abortions.
Have Blue (854a6e) — 7/20/2010 @ 9:56 amI think it’s a little silly to pretend that we could terminate the drug war to the extent that some drug cartels wouldn’t exist.
Are you planning to legalize everything? For children, too?
Otherwise, there’s still a market.
So the real question isn’t a binary on or off, but one of optimizing. I think the drug war can be greatly optimized beyond where it is now. No knock raids against pot possession isn’t the only unnecessary aspect.
This is politically difficult to achieve because so much of the libertarian view is that if we let adults use heroin, the world will be a better place.
It won’t.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 7/20/2010 @ 10:01 amNot a Mexican national, a displaced foreign traveler.
Vatar (c70795) — 7/20/2010 @ 12:32 pmDustin: to be fair, it’s also politically difficult to achieve because the average person has no experience with the substances in question (aside from marijuana) and therefore has a difficult time evaluating risk objectively … making it very easy to demagogue people into percieving a higher level of risk than is accurate.
That said, in this particular case … marijuana grow operations in state and national parks are a menace to the people who are seeking to enjoy the parks. I’d vote for marijuana legalization in a heartbeat, but I’m glad this farm was shut down.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 7/20/2010 @ 1:36 pmThanks Vatar, I had just seen that story, and went looking for the link only to find it gone from Drudge.
Displaced foreign traveler, indeed.
NavyspyII (df615d) — 7/20/2010 @ 2:14 pmaphrael – The lack of experience allows for people to demagogue a lower level of risk just as easily.
JD (5375e6) — 7/20/2010 @ 3:40 pmJD: I would agree – but I would also observe that a far larger percentage of the population overestimates the risk involved in the use of most illegal drugs than underestimates it.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 7/20/2010 @ 4:01 pmI would argue with that, vehemently. And, I can speak from experience, as I have tried almost every drug you could imagine.
JD (0ce0dc) — 7/20/2010 @ 4:04 pmJD: i’m not quite sure how to react to that.
The drugs I’ve tried, far more people in my experience overestimate their risk than underestimate their risk.
Now, my sample set is limited to a handful of drugs, but I don’t see any particular reason to think that the people I’ve met who seriously overestimate the risk of ecstacy and mushrooms are any less likely to be seriously overestimating the risk of speed.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 7/20/2010 @ 4:11 pmX and shrooms are not even in the same class or category as speed, meth, or any of the synthetics This is not something I know today, but my past is … colorful. 😉
JD (0ce0dc) — 7/20/2010 @ 4:13 pmJD: wouldn’t you describe X as a synthetic? 🙂
In any event, out of deference to your experience and a recognition that I have unfairly overstated, I will downgrade my remark:
as far as I can tell, more people seriously overestimate the risk of the drugs I have experience with than seriously underestimate the risks of same.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 7/20/2010 @ 4:16 pmOh, it is certainly synthetic. I agree with you on certain drugs, marijuana and its mild forms, and other more simple drugs. I am going for hyperbole here, but I do not think it is possible to overstate the dangers of synthetics (no knowledge of source), hydro/one-hit/kind bud, cocaine, LSD, and a multitude of pharmaceuticals.
JD (0ce0dc) — 7/20/2010 @ 4:21 pmSo, I do not disagree with your restatement.
JD (0ce0dc) — 7/20/2010 @ 4:22 pmIf you were to investigate the native uses of the Coca leaves, for altitude sickness, mood lifting and other similar uses – I’m all over it. I think Coca leaves should be imported as is, unrefined. It makes an excellent restorative tea. Really. If you ever go to visit Maccu Piccu and Cuzco you will need to get a vendor to give you some leaves and a stone just to deal with the altitude.
Coca in it’s refined state, cocaine, is the issue. It’s deadly to the environment where it’s processed. Not even mentioning the wars over the refined stuff.
Just saying, coming at the problem side ways is, perhaps, more of a solution. The farmers who grow the coca could get paid, we can cut out some of the wicked middle men and traffickers and get some win out of a fail situation.
Vivian Louise (643333) — 7/20/2010 @ 5:16 pmonly one acre?
You are kidding… they farm hundreds of acres here… sure its all spread out in multiple canyons and arroyos, but a one acre operation is like a 300lbs defensive tackle driving a Mazda Miata
SteveG (fcf23f) — 7/20/2010 @ 7:15 pmHortatio,
The War on Drugs wouldn’t be insane if all Americans obeyed the law. Wether it is illegal immigration or illegal drugs, some people think that laws are for those too stupid to disobey them.
The illegal drug trade murders thousands a year, and you and your kind blame the law. I blame the crimianl.
An extension of your arguement is that immigration laws create illegal aliens, or property law creates thieves. All the druggies have to do is start acting like they give a damm about the rest of hummanity, and they could pick up a lot of political support.
tyree (63c76f) — 7/20/2010 @ 7:32 pmX and shrooms are not even in the same class or category as speed, meth, or any of the synthetics
Man, JD… don’t know about the X, but ‘shrooms ain’t harmless… “According to a statement of probable cause filed with Del Norte County Superior Court, deputies arrived at a Fizer Road residence in Requa during the early morning hours of March 21, after a man reported seeing Wyatt, a 26-year-old mixed martial arts cage fighter, in the living room with Powell’s apparently dead body.
The man, Justin Davis, had been there earlier in the day and saw Wyatt acting strangely after drinking “some kind of mushroom tea,” according to the statement. Davis left for Crescent City, but returned later to pick up his dog. Davis arrived to find Wyatt standing in the living room naked and covered with blood, according to the statement. Wyatt told Davis, according to the statement, that he was going to cut out Powell’s heart. Davis went to a nearby pay phone to call law enforcement.
A deputy arrived at the residence and reportedly saw Wyatt on the couch with Powell’s body, which was covered in blood and had most of its face removed. A large incision in the chest could be seen, and other unspecified body parts had been removed. An eyeball was resting in the middle of the room, according to the statement.
Wyatt allegedly told the deputy that he’d cut Powell’s heart out and thrown it into the fire.
Powell’s death certificate reads that he died from having his heart removed while he was still alive, causing him to bleed to death. It also lists as significant blunt force trauma to the head and neck, and compression of the neck.
The deputy reported finding blood throughout the house, making the entire residence a crime scene. Large indentations in the sheetrock in the bathroom could be seen, the statement said, which appeared to have been made by the back of someone’s head.
What appeared to be wild mushrooms were in the kitchen, the deputy reported. The deputy also discovered a marijuana garden in the house when he went to search for additional victims, the statement reads.”
But I guess it could’ve been the herb that set him off?
GeneralMalaise (11870b) — 7/20/2010 @ 8:12 pmGeneral–some mushrooms are poisonous, some are hallucinogenic, some are neither, and anyone who wants to pick mushrooms in the wild has to know what they are doing, because it’s easy to mistake one kind for another, and end up putting poison on that mushroom pizza. Presumably a hallucinogenic mushroom was involved in this case, although I suppose that use of marijuana might trigger a psychotic episode.
kishnevi (fbc22c) — 7/20/2010 @ 8:46 pmThe head of the National Park system has said that the cartels control so much land that he can’t even claim its our anymore.
Pot in Parks.
Patricia (358f54) — 7/20/2010 @ 8:47 pmpoint of order: the quote was from the director of the National Drug Control Policy, about pot farms in national forests (not national parks).
the other person quoted in the article is a Lieutenant with the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department.
aphrael (9e8ccd) — 7/20/2010 @ 9:00 pmPark…forest, but it’s US land is what I’m saying.
Patricia (358f54) — 7/21/2010 @ 7:45 amI hate to break it to you, but adults are using heroin, despite your precious War on (Some) Drugs. Prohibition doesn’t stop consumption. It just drives it underground and cedes control of the market to criminals. And yes, I think the world would be a better place if we deprived vicious criminals of a huge source of revenue. Are you saying it wouldn’t?
CTD (7054d2) — 7/21/2010 @ 9:55 amBut without prohibitionists like you, the criminal would have no incentive to murder. When was the last time you heard about a liquor wholesaler getting into a shooting war with a rival?
CTD (7054d2) — 7/21/2010 @ 9:59 amCTD,
PRM (310ebf) — 7/21/2010 @ 2:07 pmWhen was the last time you heard of a state allowing a convicted criminal a liquor license?
General, yeah, that always happens with mushrooms, And that one-hit bud is sooooooo dangerous, JD, lol. Where in the world do you people get your information from? Alcohol is far more likely to end with someone killing someone else. I get my drug information from reading books, journals, medical studies. You know, facts instead of hyperbole. Religious experiences make people kill other people all the time. Mushrooms and marijuana don’t seem to do that at all.
Chris Hooten (b6e72d) — 7/21/2010 @ 3:59 pmYou are intentionally dishonest and stupid, aren’t you?
JD (3399c0) — 7/21/2010 @ 4:01 pmYou are the one that said one hit bud was dangerous, not me. I can’t imagine how you could possibly back that statement up. You do understand that if weed A is ten times the potency of weed B, people will smoke 1/10th as much of it, not the same amount. Marijuana users tend to titrate their doses effectively. Admittedly, a new user could become somewhat disoriented. But “dangerous?”
Chris Hooten (b6e72d) — 7/21/2010 @ 4:21 pmIt does not surprise me in the least that you do not understand my point, and in doing so, have chosen to aggressively distort it.
JD (3399c0) — 7/21/2010 @ 4:23 pmJD – I also thought the claim that “I do not think it is possible to overstate the dangers of … hydro/one-hit/kind bud” was odd, but I chose not to engage with it. 🙂
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 7/21/2010 @ 4:32 pmWhat is your point? Psychotic people can have psychotic episodes for any number of reasons. Unstable people should not be messing with drugs, including alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, mushrooms, and all the others. The blame really rests within the biochemistry of the psychotic person, though, not with the drugs. It is sort of like blaming sugar for damaging diabetics. Oh, and that purified white stuff, whoah. Now that is some dangerous crap. It KILLS people (if they are diabetic…)
Chris Hooten (b6e72d) — 7/21/2010 @ 4:37 pmChris: I suspect that the problem is that many people who are vulnerable to psychotic episodes while under the influence of drugs are not aware of that in advance and so can’t reasonably be expected to take the precaution of not trying the drug.
Which is to say: those of us who are in favor of legalizing certain drugs shouldn’t minimize the danger of psychosis: it’s a real danger, and it’s something people should be aware of … but that requires on some level that there be greater awareness of and attention to mental health issues in general.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 7/21/2010 @ 4:40 pmA million times yes. An informed adult can be trusted to rule their own life, but part of the problem is some doubt the risks are well understood by the masses (for better and worse, depending).
Dustin (b54cdc) — 7/21/2010 @ 4:54 pm